1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a test handler, and more particularly, to a test handler for testing an electric component (in this application, a ‘device’ is designated for an electric component in the following statements) such as an integrated circuit (IC) or a semiconductor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
The device manufactured through a predetermined assembly process in a semiconductor manufacturing process, should perform a test process for checking whether a predetermined function in the device is operated or not. A test handler is employed in such a test process, and the test process is accomplished by transferring a predetermined number of the devices and by contacting a test head to the devices. According to the test results, the devices are classified and transferred.
Such a test handler transfers the 32 or 64 devices to the test head for testing simultaneously, and performs a test in the abnormal temperature surroundings, such as the high or the low temperature.
As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the conventional test handler comprises a user tray supplier 10 for loading multiple user trays carrying the testable devices, and a user tray deliverer 20 for loading multiple user trays carrying the classified devices after completing the test, in the front side of a handler main body 1.
Additionally, in the upper portions of the user tray supplier 10 and the user tray deliverer 20, a loading side set plate 30 and an unloading side set plate 40 are placed for loading and unloading the devices respectively.
A user tray loaded in the user tray supplier 10 is sequentially transferred to the loading side set plate 30 by a transfer arm (not shown), and the user tray placed in the unloading side set plate 40 is also sequentially transferred to the user tray deliverer 20 by the above mentioned transfer arm.
Additionally, the handler main body 1 comprises a soak chamber 50 and a de-soak chamber 60 in both the back sides of the handler main body 1, and a test chamber (not shown) between those chambers 50 and 60 in the bottom side of the handler main body 1.
In more, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the handler main body 1 comprises first, second and third tray arrangement stations 80, 81 and 82 placing a test tray 70 in the upper side of the test chamber. The test tray 70 circulates from the first tray arrangement station 80 to the second tray arrangement station 81 through the soak chamber 50, two test chambers, the de-soak chamber, the third tray arrangement station 82 sequentially.
In more, in the upper side of the handler main body 1, the test handler comprises a vertical loading robot 90 and two vertical unloading robots 91 and 92. The vertical loading robot 90 picks the devices from the user tray placed at the loading side set plate 30, and transfers the devices to the test tray 70 placed at the first tray arrangement station 80. In a similar way, two vertical unloading robots 91 and 92 pick the devices from the test tray 70 placed at the second and the third tray arrangement station 81 and 82, and transfer the devices to the user tray placed at the unloading side set plate 40.
The soak chamber 50 heats or cools the devices in the test tray 70 to a predetermined temperature, and vertically lifts down the test tray 70 to the test chamber. The test chamber maintains surroundings of a predetermined temperature and connects to test heads 100 and 101 to test the devices. A first test chamber performs tests for 32 devices and a second test chamber performs tests for the other 32 devices.
The de-soak chamber 60, restoring the heated or the cooled devices to a room temperature devices, lifts vertically up the test tray 70 on the contrary to the soak chamber 50 and supplied the test tray 70 to the third arrangement station 82.
Additionally, the vertical robots 90, 91 and 92 comprise a plurality of hands for receiving the devices using a suction function and move continuously and repeatedly between the user tray and the test tray 70 while being operated by a servomotor and a timing belt. By this moving, the devices are transferred from the user tray to the test tray 70 or from the test tray 70 to the user tray.
On the other hand, though not shown in the accompanying drawings, a main controller of the test handler includes a conveyor device for circulating the test tray 70 among a loading area, a soaker area, a test area and an unloading area, and a control circuit for controlling drivers of the circulation and those devices.
In the conventional test handler described as the above statements, as illustrated in FIG. 3, one user tray loaded in the user tray supplier 10 by a transfer arm is transferred to the loading side set plate 30.
After the vertical loading robot 90 performs pre-sizing operations so that the position of the devices in a pre-sizing unit 31 exactly corresponds to the position of the socket within the test tray 70, the multiple devices are transferred to the test tray 70 placed in the first tray arrangement station 80 (Step 1).
After the test tray 70 containing the multiple devices is transferred to the soak chamber 50 and is heated up or cooled down to the temperature of the test conditions while lifting down, the test tray is transferred to the test chamber (Step 2 and Step 3).
In the test chamber, tests are progressed after the multiple devices on the test tray 70 connect to the sockets of the test heads 100 and 101 (Step 4). The test tray 70 completing the tests is transferred to the de-soak chamber 60.
The test tray 70 restoring the room temperature (Step 5) while passing the de-soak chamber 60, is transferred to the second and the third tray arrangement stations 81 and 82. In the second and the third tray arrangement stations 81 and 82, each of the devices is classified according to the test results by the two vertical unloading robots 91 and 92, and transferred to an empty tray placed at the unloading side set plate 40. (Step 6 and Step 6′)
After the empty tray in the unloading set plate 40 is filled with the devices, the empty tray is transferred and loaded to the user tray deliverer 20 according to the classification by the transfer arm. After that, the transfer arm transfers new empty tray to the unloading side set plate 40, and the above operation is repeated until the inspection for the one lot of the devices is completed.
However, in the conventional test handler described in the above statements, as shown in the operation flow of the test tray 70 of FIG. 3, the tests for the 64 devices contained in a single test tray 70 are only completed in the case that the test tray 70 should be transferred in a single line and passed the first and the second test chamber serially. Therefore, it has disadvantage in that the indexing time of the test tray 70 is long and the number of the devices in a unit time is not so many.
In other words, the conventional test handler requires much time in loading the devices on the user tray to the test tray 70. The conventional test handler also requires more time in unloading the devices on the test tray 70 to the user tray because the vertical unloading robots 91 and 92 perform unloading and sorting the devices simultaneously. Therefore, the amount of the devices treated in a unit time is not so many.
Additionally, because the conventional test handler has a structure that the test tray 70 is transferred horizontally to the handler main body 1 to dock with the test heads 100 and 101, the path for an entrance and an exit of the test heads 100 and 101 should be established within the handler main body 1. Therefore, it has another disadvantage that the size of the handler becomes larger inefficiently.
In more, the test heads 100 and 101 in the conventional test handler are extremely limited because of the horizontal docking structure between the test tray 70 and the test heads 100 and 101. Additionally, the space for another components, for example, the user tray supplier 10 or the user tray deliverer 20, is so limited that lots of the user tray can not be loaded. Therefore, the size of the lot in an operation is limited so that the equipment operation ratio is declined.